Sephora has signed a multi-year sponsorship with F1 Academy, the women's racing series launched by Formula 1 in 2023. The LVMH-owned beauty retailer becomes the series' first non-endemic consumer brand outside luxury goods, joining existing sponsors Pirelli, Rolex, and VisitQatar. Terms were not disclosed, but the deal includes trackside branding, digital rights, and access to the ten-team grid that debuts this season, up from seven in 2024.
The series runs seven race weekends in 2025 alongside Formula 1 grands prix, with stops in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Monaco, Miami, Silverstone, Monza, and Austin. Each team fields one driver; the current roster includes seventeen-year-old Aurelia Nobels at MP Motorsport and eighteen-year-old Chloe Chambers at Prema Racing. F1 Academy pays driver salaries directly — a structural choice that lowers barriers for teams signing women without personal sponsorship. Sephora's logo will appear on car bodywork and team kit, though individual driver agreements remain separate.
The deal carries layered logic for both sides. Sephora's parent LVMH already owns TAG Heuer, which sponsors Red Bull Racing, and Louis Vuitton, which produces the Formula 1 trophy cases. F1 Academy offers a lower entry price than main-series sponsorship and access to a younger, more gender-balanced audience: 52% of F1 Academy's social following is female, per Liberty Media's 2024 data, compared to 40% for Formula 1 overall. The series drew 1.8 million YouTube views across race highlights last season, a fraction of F1's reach but clean demographic targeting for a beauty retailer expanding sports positioning beyond tennis and fitness influencers.
For F1 Academy, the signature solves a credibility problem. The series launched with team-entry fees subsidized by Liberty Media; adding a major consumer brand validates the sponsorship inventory and likely improves negotiating leverage for future team-level deals. Sephora's involvement also creates a template for other non-endemic brands testing women's sports: write one check to the league, avoid the complexity of athlete-by-athlete activation, gain category exclusivity. The model mirrors what Ally Financial did with NWSL before signing individual players.
Sephora's timing aligns with its broader shift toward experiential retail. The company opened one hundred new North American stores in 2024 and tested pop-up activations at music festivals and college campuses. Motorsport offers a different distribution channel: F1 Academy paddocks are smaller than Formula 1's, meaning sponsor footprint is proportionally larger, and the series skews toward attendees who already travel internationally for racing. A $150 paddock pass at Silverstone gets closer access than a $1,200 F1 ticket. That's sampling geography for a retailer with 430 Sephora locations in Europe and expansion plans in the Middle East, where three of this season's races take place.
The deal also insulates Sephora from athlete-conduct risk while still gaining motorsport's aspirational sheen. F1 Academy drivers are contracted to the series, not individual teams, so sponsor messaging doesn't hinge on one person's results or off-track behavior. The series itself is tightly controlled by Formula 1 Management, which means brand safety is higher than independent racing categories. Meanwhile, Sephora avoids the cost and complexity of a main-series sponsorship, where annual spends start at $15 million for lower-midfield teams and climb past $50 million for title partnerships.
Watch for follow-on activations in Sephora's loyalty program, which has 34 million active members in North America. The retailer could tie limited-edition products to race weekends or offer VIP paddock access as rewards redemptions, a tactic luxury brands have used in Formula E. Also watch for whether other beauty or fashion retailers follow Sephora into women's motorsport; Dior and Jacquemus have tested F1 hospitality partnerships, but not racing-series commitments.
F1 Academy's next team announcements are expected before the March 1 Bahrain season opener. The series is still signing its tenth team; the slot will likely go to an existing junior-formula outfit with Formula 3 or Formula 4 operations.
The takeaway
Sephora's F1 Academy sponsorship tests beauty-retail demand for motorsport at lower cost and higher demographic precision than main-series deals.
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